


Painted Black

by BornOfFire



Series: Saudade AU (One-shots) [5]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Grant is a teenager, Grant is a zombie, Modern Day, Saudade Apocalypse AU, Shawn unofficially adopted Grant before apocalypse, TW: Blood, Zombie AU, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie Boi learns how to paint, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25158688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornOfFire/pseuds/BornOfFire
Summary: Zombie!Grant gets left alone in the safe-house while Shawn is getting more supplies, and Grant makes a mess lol.
Series: Saudade AU (One-shots) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/876357
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Painted Black

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Sorry I haven’t posted anything on here in a really long time.. I want to start doing that again though. I hope you guys like this story! I’m sorry if it isn’t very good though, but I tried my best. Anyway please enjoy. :D

Shawn was gone again today. Like usual, Grant had no idea where or why he went. 

Standing, staring unblinkingly at the door that the man had left out of. The boy was unsure how long he’d been standing there for. He couldn’t remember what he had been doing before Shawn left. 

_Remembering things is hard._

What was the man trying to tell him earlier? Be “ _good_ ”? Was that it? 

He tried to remember what “ _good_ ” meant. 

_Good_.. often had different meanings. It could mean “ _no biting_ ” or “ _staying quiet_ ”, or even “ _no touching_.” This confused the boy. Why did the word have so many different meanings?

Did this mean he had to be quiet? There was no food in here to try and bite.. so it couldn’t be “ _no biting_.” The man took his bag with him, so he couldn’t touch his things either. 

Yes. 

Quiet. That had to be it. He just needed to be “ _quiet_.”

What was a quiet thing he could do while he waited for Shawn to come back? 

Grant stood there for awhile again. Trying to search his brain for some sort of activity to keep himself occupied.. but he couldn’t think of anything. 

The lonely boy let out a frustrated groan, and some blood accidentally spilled from his mouth and onto the floor. Uh oh. Now there was a dark puddle in front of him. Shawn always looked sad when he saw these.. although he never knew why.

He doesn’t like seeing Shawn sad.

_**There’s a puddle on the floor. Shawn will get sad. There’s a puddle on the floor. Shawn will get sad. There’s a puddle on the floor. Shawn will get sad. There’s a puddle on the floor. Shawn will get sad-** _

The zombie stared at the puddle for quite some time. A strange feeling of static grew in his mind as he stood there. Thoughts replaying in his head like a mantra. As though he were trying to figure something out.. 

Slowly it hit him. 

_Clean_ the puddle. 

Yes. “ _Cleaning_.” What was that again? That’s.. when you make messes go away right? Yeah. That had to be it. It had to be. 

Grant felt a bit of pride swell up in his un-beating heart. Happy to have figured something out. It wasn’t until he realized that he didn’t know how to clean it, that his pride disappeared. 

No. No. That isn’t fair. He almost had it. Didn’t he? Now Shawn is going to be sad again.. 

A flicker of anger passed through the boy, and he swatted the puddle of blood with his hands. A dangerous growl forming in his throat. Then he snarled. Swatting at it again. 

It splashed a little. Spreading the dark colour further across the floorboards. He paused for a moment. 

The colour could _spread_? 

Grant dipped his fingers into the blood. Curiosity surging through his undead brain. He pulled them out. The colour was running down his fingers. 

Slowly an idea popped into his head. He lifted his fingers to the ground. Letting them hover for a moment.

Black stuff was starting to drip onto the floor from his fingers. Making tiny puddles, smaller than a penny. Metaphorical gears started moving in his head, and he wondered what would happen if he dragged them across the wood. 

It left a trail. 

Grant was shocked. What was this? He felt like he had just discovered some special secret, unknown to the universe. His finger left a trail from the dark liquid. How did it do that? Would it happen again? 

He dragged his finger against the floor again, and sure enough, it left another trail. 

His mind was blown. It happened again. No longer wanting to try just his fingers, he dunked the palm of his hand into the puddle of zombie blood. Before pulling it out and slapping it onto the wall next to him. 

A _handprint_ was left on it. 

————

Nearly three hours had passed since Shawn had left on his supply-run and he finally got back. Tired and exhausted. Accidentally stumbling across a horde of zombies and having to hide from them only an hour before. 

At least he could get see Grant and get some rest now that it was over. It’s because of him that he’s still fighting. Still trying to survive in this apocalypse. As long as Grant stayed right by his side he’d stay hopeful for a cure. 

The man sighed and smiled with relief as he opened the door to the safe-house. 

Then his eyes filled with horror.

_Blood_ covered the floor and the walls. Bloody handprints scattered the place as though a crazed murderer had just been through here. Painted in horrible _black liquid_ were messy lines and poorly drawn shapes in most places as well. It almost looked like it was made by an insane pre-schooler. 

And there, in the corner of the room, sat _Grant_. Dabbing a finger in the blood that leaked from his eyes and pressing it to the wall. 

Shawn didn’t know whether to feel very concerned or relieved. Because one: The blood on the walls and the floor thankfully wasn’t caused by a murderer, and two: Grant is painting the walls with his _own_ blood. 

It was so disturbing that Shawn could only stand there in shock. He hadn’t even noticed when the zombie had gotten up to greet him, he was too busy staring at the terrifying mess left by the kid. 

There was a tugging on his sleeve and the man was pulled out of his thoughts to see Grant looking at him expectantly. He looked.. almost _excited_. 

“H-Hey kiddo! D-Did you do all that?” Shawn asked, his voice shaking with discomfort.

The boy answered with a small grunt, before pulling on the man’s sleeve again. There was a spark of something in the zombified teen’s eyes. A hint of urgency?

“Y-You want to show it to me?” 

Grant nodded before letting go of the former toy-makers sleeve and instead grabbing his arm. Nearly dragging him across the room to look at his latest picture. 

His most recent painting was pretty messy, and rather gruesome, just like the rest. Although Shawn thought he could make out what appeared to be two stick figures in the mess of blood. Underneath were the letters “ _ **S**_ ” and “ _ **G**_.” 

So Grant really was paying attention during his reading and writing lessons? 

Shawn sighed. Feeling the terror that had been threatening to grab ahold of his heart ebbing way. 

Despite the horrific nature in which the paintings were made. Shawn couldn’t help but feel.. _glad_ that Grant seemed so excited about something. It had been so hard to get him to show that much emotion. Usually he was just off in his own little world. Staring off into space, or moaning about being hungry, and when he wasn’t doing that he was just being clingy. Like he didn’t want Shawn to leave. 

This was a milestone. It may appear small to some people, but to Shawn this was everything. Grant had been listening when the man had been trying to teach him how to read and write again. This is progress. 

A groan had once again pulled the man back out of his thoughts, and he turned to see the boy staring at him. Waiting for an answer. 

“It.. it looks great Grant. Is that supposed to be you and me?” Shawn asked despite already knowing the answer. 

“ _ **Y-Ysssssh**_..” Grant said with a rasp. The young zombie attempting with difficulty to say the word “ _yes_.” 

“I.. I love it buddy. I’m so proud of you..” The man softly replied. Tears welling up in his eyes as he noticed the small _smile_ forming on the undead boy’s face. 

A smile may seem like nothing to most people, but when a loved one has been turned into a zombie, you have to appreciate the little things. What seemed so small meant so much to Shawn. Pulling Grant into a hug. Not worried about being bitten. Not caring that he was cold. The kid had only ever tried to bite him once and that was before he recognized his face. The man trusted him completely. There was no way that Grant would ever bite him on purpose. 

“I’m so _proud_ of you..”

When the man let go of him, the zombie was still smiling. Although he seemed to want to get back to painting the walls with his blood again. Maybe the former toy-maker should add some drawing pads, and finger paints to his supply-list. 

Looking back at the bloodstained walls, and ruined floor he realized that this would most-likely take a very long time to clean up. 

Perhaps they should find a new safe-house.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys like this story! I tried really hard to make this good. I’m sorry if it isn’t that good though! I tried my best!
> 
> If you guys would like to see more about this AU and its story, my Tumblr name is bornoffireandwisdom! :D


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